Although Facebook and Twitter always steal the social media spotlight, 2010 should be remembered as the year where LinkedIn accelerated development and released a plethora of new applications, features, and functionality to their platform for professionals. While many complain of the ever-increasing restrictions and some question the validity of potentially keyword-stuffed search results on the professional networking platform, it is clear that LinkedIn is following a path of sticking to its roots as a trusted network built upon relationships while always looking for creative ways to generate additional revenue and traffic from new sources. If you haven’t kept up with …
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LinkedIn and Facebook would seem to have very little in common going into 2011: One platform was created as a closed and trusted networking site for professionals while the roots of the other come from being an open “face book” of college students. While LinkedIn has built up a dominant presence in the hearts and minds of the professional demographic, Facebook is in the center of consumer culture and many a business who want to capture the hearts and money of us all. Professionals network on one platform while companies establish Pages on the other. Ask most companies where they …
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There are many “best of” blog posts that have been written about WordPress plugins, so I wanted to cover a different angle with this post. I see WordPress and blogging like this: If your company has a social media strategy, chances are you have a corporate blog. Our friends at Hubspot released their analysis some time ago that blogging is good for SEO. And if you are blogging, chances are you are using WordPress, which is the most popular blogging platform among the biggest blogs. In this way, I see a natural relationship between blogging, WordPress, social media, and SEO. …
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I hope that the title to this blog post knocked you out of your comfort zone, because that was my intention in writing this guide. Don’t get me wrong: LinkedIn is still an essential part of your job search, and having an optimized LinkedIn profile and networking with others on that platform is still a prerequisite in helping you land your next job. But where LinkedIn may have been the ultimate differentiator for the job seeker two years ago, it no longer is. Instead, it’s time to start thinking about investing more time in utilizing Twitter for your job search. …
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After recently publishing blog posts on two of LinkedIn’s newest features, LinkedIn Profile Stats Pro as well as LinkedIn Signal, I have received a few comments and questions from my readers like the one below: I have yet to make the leap to a paid account, and as new features like this come available it makes the thought more enticing but not enticing enough. Curious as to why you choose to go to a paid account? What are the benefits in your opinion? I have actually recommended the now $9.95 a month “hidden” LinkedIn Personal Plus account to heavy users …
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Google Analytics is the default (and free) service that analyzes visitors to your website. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could analyze visitors to your Facebook Page? Facebook Insights actually provides you with that data. What about Twitter, you ask? Twitter just recently released a beta of their Twitter Analytics to a select few users. And although there is no word about a potential analytics application for LinkedIn Groups, LinkedIn has now released a Google Analytics-like application to analyze those who view you on LinkedIn: LinkedIn Profile Stats Pro. When compared to its social media counterparts, what is unique about …
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It seems like only yesterday when I was blogging about the top 15 recommended social media books of 2009, but here we are ending out 2010. And what a year 2010 has been: The rise of Facebook to become a dominating (and sometimes threatening) force globally, Twitter becoming a mainstream realtime communication platform embraced by older generations, and even LinkedIn adding various functionalities throughout the year to continue to remain relevant as the default social network for professionals. Popularity in location-based applications such as FourSquare also skyrocketed this year. And if 2009 was the year in which companies were still …
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As an open networker with lots of social media connections, I get asked several social media-related questions from different people globally on any given day. Recently, I have been frequently asked about how to start a social media consulting business and develop initial clients. I am happy to mentor a new generation of social media-savvy business consultants, and I plan to be blogging about this more in the future, as I believe the subject can aid not only social media consultants, but also educate any consultant, entrepreneur, or small business owner on how to better utilize social media to launch …
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LinkedIn Signal was released just two months ago as a new way for professionals to consume information. While the new product was only available in beta for some time, my good friend Glen Loock recently mentioned to me that now anyone can access the application through LinkedIn Labs, or better yet, here’s the official link for Signal. I always feel it is best to wait a little time and give new features some historical perspective before reviewing them fully on my blog. This is no different with Signal: While it was announced with some fanfare in late September, the application …
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I had a chance this week to speak at an event in front of several different local Orange County nonprofit organizations. While nonprofits are beginning to understand the potential for social media engagement, my sense during the meeting was that efforts seemed to be centered around Facebook for the objective of merely gaining awareness for their organization in the community. While utilizing Facebook to help in raising awareness for a nonprofit and its cause is a necessity to any social media strategy for nonprofits, there are many other things that nonprofits can be using social media for. Similarly, there are …
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